News item

Archive of: September, 2013

NHS England has now launched its long-awaited programme of Commissioning through Evaluation (CTE). The SHCA strongly welcomes this important programme, which reflects longstanding Alliance policy and has the potential to bridge the gap between the available evidence base for promising products and technologies and the production of a national clinical commissioning policy.

CTE will provide for limited commissioning of a specified product for one to two years with a view to gathering and assessing its outcomes in order to form a national clinical commissioning policy. Such a policy would then see the treatment available to all eligible patients in England, or to fall outside of routine NHS funding, on the basis of the evidence generated through CTE.

Six treatments have so far been identified as the first CTE projects, with further products expected to follow if CTE is effective.

Full details are available here: http://www.england.nhs.uk/2013/09/26/com-through-eval/

The Specialised Healthcare Alliance has submitted a response to the Department of Health’s recent consultation on its proposed refresh of the Mandate to NHS England.

The Alliance’s response welcomes the retention of the objective relating to NHS England’s direct commissioning in the proposed refresh, noting the importance of holding NHS England to account for this approximately £25billion of spending.

However, the SHCA’s response also urges the Department to preserve the approach of its first Mandate in setting overarching objectives for NHS England to achieve, rather than particular targets, which could have the effect of distorting longer-term service planning.